Fresh push to ban the 'asbestos of the 2020s'

Diagnosed cases of silicosis have jumped over the last decade and unions are calling on state governments to outlaw the material as they push for stronger protections for 600,000 workers exposed to silica dust.

The Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union is also threatening to ban members from working with engineered stone by mid next year unless imports are stopped and measures taken to ensure it is no longer used.

About one in four stonemasons who work with the product suffer from serious lung diseases and workers involved in mining, quarrying, manufacturing, building and construction can also be exposed to silica dust.

Engineered stone is the asbestos of the 2020s, according to the union's incoming national secretary Zach Smith.

"The companies flooding our markets with this cheap and nasty material know (the dangers) but to them profits are more important than people's lives," Mr Smith said.

Asbestos was banned 70 years after the dangers of the product were first known and Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Liam O'Brien said authorities should not delay banning engineered stone.

"We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past," Mr O'Brien said.

Stonemason Kyle Goodwin was just 33 when he was diagnosed with silicosis after years of cutting, shaping and polishing engineered stone benchtops.

He received the devastating diagnosis four and a half years ago and his medical team predicted he had just five years left before the disease claimed his life.

"Instead of planning a family, we're planning my funeral," Mr Goodwin says in an advertisement for the campaign.

"I used to install kitchen benches. People liked engineered stone because it was cheap. But the dust got into my lungs causing deadly, incurable silicosis.

"That's too high a price for anyone to pay."

Australian work, health and safety systems have failed to protect workers from preventable occupational diseases, according to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Occupational and Environment Physician Dr Warren Harrex said diagnosed cases of silicosis had jumped in the last 10 years and called for mandatory air quality monitoring in dusty workplaces.

"Accelerated silicosis is just the tip of the iceberg of dust causing harm to workers, as dust exposure which may cause silicosis and other diseases is common in many occupations across Australia," Dr Harrex said.

"Dust exposure in workers may not be evident until retirement, with chronic obstructive lung disease contributing to a burden on public health expenditure."